We just wrapped up our 2018 Points of Intervention College road tour! We visited 13 schools across the country accompanied by change-makers, activists, businesses, and more who are disrupting the linear consumption economy. Check out our instagram to see highlights from the tour. Interested in joining next year’s Points of Intervention tour? Fill out our interest form or learn more below.

Each of our speakers are chosen for their work that is not only chipping away at the Linear Consumption Economy model, but doing so in a way that activates their unique skills, passions, and lived experiences. Their innovative ideas are permeating into a variety of spaces, from the factory to frontline communities, where the implications of climate change, waste, and social inequity are manifesting themselves in acute ways.

Interested in joining us for the 2019 Points of Intervention tour? Every stop on this tour will be unique, as we work with each campus to organize a convergence of all types of local passions, skills, and expertise among the student body. These full-day or multi-day activations will invite students together in a fun and engaging way to showcase what real solutions can look like. Check out our interest form for more information.

With 60 percent of global greenhouse gas output coming directly from the stuff we consume, it is clear that climate change, waste, and the social inequities that result are not issues in isolation from one another. Rather, these global woes are symptoms of a collectively flawed system: the Linear Consumption Economy. The hand-me-down of current affairs can leave our generation feeling overwhelmed and powerless. Fortunately, there are many points along this economic model at which we can intervene.

Challenging the Consumption Economy: The Points of Intervention Tour will travel to college and university campuses across the country, sharing the stories of individuals who are peeling back the pieces of this broken system in their own way for a just transition to a circular economy. From local food production to harnessing renewable energy, this tour will show students that activating their unique experiences and passions is a part of this fight, and that while nobody can do everything, everyone can do something.

We refer to these actions along the Linear Consumption trajectory as Points of Intervention: specific places in a system where a targeted action can effectively interrupt the functioning of a system as a whole and open the way to change. Whether they are physical (i.e. an expanding landfill) or ideological (i.e. planned obsolescence of consumer products), these points serve as avenues to better understand, and ultimately reconstruct, the Linear Consumption Economy.

There are countless ways to intervene, so we will be highlighting a few that encompass issues of waste, climate change, and environmental justice:

Resistance:

Halting dirty resource extraction operations that are jeopardizing the health of surrounding habitats and communities, while reinforcing a reliance on fossil fuels.

Redesign:

What we buy doesn’t have to be made to break. Planned obsolescence is being replaced with extended producer responsibility and modular products that are repairable and built to last.

Regulation:

Passing legislation that prohibits landfills and incinerator expansion, particularly in areas of low income and communities of color.

Redistribution:

Creating markets that ensure equitable distribution of goods and services, so that folks growing, stitching, and building consumer products also reap the benefits of their labor.

Reuse/Repair:

Empowering our generation to mend, stitch, and prolong the life of their stuff, so that we own that stuff, and don’t just mindlessly consume it.

– Our Partners –

We are excited to involve companies whose missions align with the ethos of this project to help build fun and engaging activations at each tour stop and contribute to the events in a meaningful way. Check out our Partners Page to see some of the companies we have worked with on similar projects, such as Patagonia, Klean Kanteen, iFixit, Guayaki, Preserve Products, World Centric, and more.